RIBA Regional Awards 2014: London
Drapers Academy, Havering
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios for The Drapers’ Company/Queen Mary University
Contract £21.4m. GIA 10,692m2
No swoops and whorls here, this is a rational, calm building, well sited and ‘exquisitely detailed’ according to the jury. Organised around the client requirement for open access to its science and maths specialisms, stepping down its sloping site, it is mainly on two storeys with an internal ‘street’ and courtyard. Single-story elements sit lower on the site.
This being FCBS, sustainability is exemplary, from ground source heat pumps to photovoltaics and sedum roofs via natural ventilation and good daylighting. And some might see a satisfyingly 1950s touch in some of the knobbly brickwork. If only all schools were this good.
